Sindh is trying to improve its governance and public service delivery through interactive sessions of provincial cabinet members and senior officials with PPP workers and local council (UC) representatives chaired by the chief minister. The usual pre-budget consultations with various stakeholders such as trade, industry, and big farmers’ organisations have been extended to the grassroots level. Efforts are being made …

One of the drawbacks of the modern economic system is how it rewards certain professions over others, completely detached from the underlying utility; for example, school teachers earn a fraction of what treasury bankers do. One of them commits their entire lives to building the future of coming generations while the other sits at a desk all day putting public …

LONDON: Inter­nat­ional Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan justified his decision to request arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister, saying Israel’s actions were not how war is supposed to be fought. Khan said on Monday that he was seeking warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohamed Deif, on …

KARACHI: The leadership of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakis­tan (TTP), based in Afgha­nistan, and hostile foreign intelligence agencies were behind the March 26 suicide attack on Chinese engineers in Bisham, the country’s security czar said on Sunday. At a press conference in Lahore, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the attack, in which five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed, was planned …

DUBLIN: Nearly a week after a Singapore Airlines flight from Heathrow airport hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean leaving at least one British passenger dead and 20 others injured, six crew members and six passengers travelling on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Ireland suffered injuries during a bout of turbulence on Sunday. However, the flight (QR017), a Boeing 787 …

CAIRO: Hamas said it launched a “large rocket barrage” at Tel Aviv on Sunday, prompting sirens to sound in the Israeli city for the first time in four months as the Palestinian group sought to show military strength despite Israel’s Gaza offensive. On the other hand, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah, as tanks probed around the …

BERLIN: Emmanuel Macron arrived on Sunday in Berlin on the first state visit to Germany by a French president in a quarter century, bringing a plea to defend democracy against nationalism at upcoming European elections. Macron made an appearance at a democracy festival his first stop, where, accompanied by German President Frank-Walter Stein­meier, he warned of a “form of fascination …

SEOUL: South Korean and Chinese leaders agreed on Sunday to start diplomatic and security dialogue and push a trade deal, when they met in Seoul ahead of a key trilateral summit with Japan. There are low expectations of any major anno­uncements or breakthroughs at the trilateral meeting on Monday, but the leaders have expressed hopes it could help revitalise three-way …

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Phunjo Jhangmu Lama, who smashed the record for the fastest ascent of Everest by a woman, said on Sunday she is not chasing records but climbing for her country. Lama on Thursday conquered the world’s highest mountain in just 14 hours and 31 minutes — a feat that usually takes other climbers days to rest and acclimatise. The …

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Monday that the death toll from Israeli air strikes on a camp housing displaced Palestinians near Rafah had risen to 40. “The massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army in the refugee tents northwest of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has left 40 martyrs and 65 wounded,” Mohammad al-Mughayyir, a senior official …